Thursday, March 15, 2012

Spring Cleaning

Yeah, I know the Playfriends are all fainting from surprise at the title for this blog. Cleaning is my least favorite thing to do. Really, I only know a handful of people who like it. I'm a bit of a procrastinator which means if I don't like doing something I'm going to put it off as long as possible until I just can't ignore it anymore.

I can no longer ignore the mountain of clutter that has become my house.

I've gotten spring cleaning fever, an affliction I don't believe I've ever caught before. Zilla has adopted an intelligent 'stay out of her way' policy. I'm organizing. I'm throwing things away. I'm letting things go that I'll never need/use again. It's liberating. And tiring. And damned expensive! Who knew organization could cost so much?

My project this week involves making an organizer for our mail so that I can actually see the end of our kitchen table. Currently, it's the repository for absolutely everything - mail, school papers, shopping bags, my bread-maker. And, frankly, I'd like to use the table for it's intended purpose - eating together as a family.

I've instituted a de-cluttering policy. My plan is to tackle one small area every day and one large project every week. I figure eventually I'll cover the whole house and might avoid becoming overwhelmed. We'll see. I have to admit that I've already missed a couple days this week because of PTO meetings, work, children commitments... But I figure any progress is good progress so I'll keep plugging along.

Do you have any tips for organization that you'd like to share? Any nifty gadgets/gizmos/whatever that streamline your life and help keep you in order?

Instigator

P.S. Here's a link to the mail organizer I'm going to make (in a smaller version since I can't find the folders she used).

3 comments:

Andrea Laurence AKA Smarty Pants said...

I'm slow rolling spring cleaning. My mom comes every two weeks to do general cleaning with me and last week we did windows and blinds, which I do very rarely. This Sunday, who knows...

I'd like to start a huge pile of thrift store donations. I do that a lot, but this time, I actually want to take it to the thrift store! Progress!

Playground Monitor said...

There's a website called the Fly Lady and she has some good de-cluttering tips. The one I like is to the "27 Fling Boogie." You walk through your home with a garbage bag and as quickly as possible you throw away 27 things. Her method is one where you do a little something every day instead of letting things pile up til you can't face it and put it off forever (like my front closet).

One of the things I like to use for cleaning is microfiber cloths. I have them in various sizes and they clean wonderfully and then wash up to be used again. I also love my Swiffer WetJet. Swiffer Dusters are great for quick dusting jobs.

Happy cleaning!

PM's Mother said...

As a rule creative people aren't the neatest people in the word. When I was working I had two signs over my desk-- "A CLEAN DESK IS THE SIGN OF A SICK MIND" and "NEAT PEOPLE DON'T MAKE THE EXCITING DISCOVERIES I DO". I presume these adages could apply to one's home.